The European Union is planning to label energy from nuclear power and natural gas as "green" sources for investment despite internal disagreement over whether they truly qualify as sustainable options.
The proposal aims to support the 27-nation bloc's shift towards a carbon-neutral future and gild its credentials as a global standard-setter for fighting climate change.
But the fact the European Commission quietly distributed the text to member states late last night, in the final hours of 2021 after the much-delayed document had been twice promised earlier in the year, highlighted the rocky road to draft it.
If a majority of member states back it, it will become EU law, coming into effect from 2023.
France has led the charge for nuclear power - its main energy source - to be included, despite robust opposition from Austria and scepticism from Germany, which is in the process of shutting all its nuclear plants.
Germany's Environment Minister Steffi Lemke told German media group Funke today that including gas and nuclear would be "a mistake", arguing that atomic power "can lead to devastating environmental catastrophes".
Austrian Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler also criticised the project, denouncing nuclear power as "an energy of the past" that was "too expensive and too slow" to combat climate change.
